On Long-Term Illness.

On Long-Term Illness.

First I want to say that I was born in Canada and I was born a Canadian citizen. For 25 years in my life I was healthy, and never knew what it was like to live with a long-term illness. When I was 25, euthanasia wasn't allowed in my country. It was a shock to receive a diagnosis for a long-term but not terminal illness. The nature of my disability limits my ability to live like the rest of society, but I don't identify with my illness. I am a free person, and what my disability limits me I have no limits in my mind. At first I couldn't see a future for myself, and because part of my illness involves a depression, thoughts of ending my life or giving up hope is never a realistic option for me.

I have always been a person of faith, and my faith has stayed with me as a disabled Canadian citizen. I can see how some people want their pain to end, but in moments when I feel that I can't climb the mountain of my disability, I am always reminded that miracles happen. I believe in the supernatural and I believe in miracles because my belief and faith structure tells me this. Because of my faith, even when I feel there is no hope, I persevere. I believe one day there will be a resurrection and a healing from all illness, when I go to Heaven.

I don't want to make my stay here short by ending my life, even when doctors cannot heal me. My illness isn't fatal and no matter how much pain I have to endure as a result of being disabled, my faith is never disabled. God is always real to me. There is so much conflict in the world right now, but those who are angry with one another really don't know what it is like to loose your health. Health is so important to me, but what is more important than being healed from my illness is going to Heaven, not now, but in God's time. Look at it this way please, if this life were all that there is, then all the injustices that have happened throughout history would have been in vain. This is not the kind of God I believe in.

The question of suffering can be redemptive, but to truly make my own suffering redemptive, I have to continue believing in God and in Heaven. This is not hard for me because when you feel like you have lost everything there is a surrender to faith and hope, that if I were not sick, would make it terribly hard to accept. This is Mike.

Comments

Age of Brokenness.

We are living in an age of brokenness, no matter what age you are, you probably have been touched with relationships falling apart, which causes more and more people to live in isolation. In this generation there is less of an incentive to heal and reconcile relationships, but that doesn’t excuse the amount of people who are broken. Why people don’t seem to be motivated to heal relationships is because our beliefs about faith and God have changed, really giving us less of an incentive to do what our religion says. If I act from my personal beliefs, but the person that I am responding to has abandoned religious beliefs, than the response to my wanting things to be better can be misinterpreted and rejected then by someone else. Generally when a society has expectations about broken relationships, loneliness and isolation, and the beliefs are generally accepted, society becomes a more compassionate society, because all value the same things. When religious values are undermined and ...

The Parable of the Ten Virgins.

Matthew 25:1-13 I have discovered a remarkable interpretation of this parable that I would like to share with you. The story in the Bible goes like this: “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy som...

The Existence of God

Since the beginning of time, man has learned about the existence of God. It began in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve walked and talked with God, however when they sinned, they died spiritually and their closeness with God was severed. In Genesis 4:26 it reads “Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.” Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, so it’s fair to say that not too long after mankind fell, we also called upon the Lord. From that time until now, mankind was closer to God then, but it’s a modern shift that the world is in the state it is in now, mainly unbelief, because even 30 years ago from now, mankind was closer to God. It is also true that in ancient Israel’s history, there have been generations that fell away and forgot God, but in the time of the prophets Israel was never left without a word from the Lord. Many generations have come and gone, but there have been remarkable generations all thr...

The Super Blogosphere of a parallel word.

Search This Blog